Iranian troops join Russians in Syria fighting

Qasem Soleimani,
commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, has sent hundreds of ground
soldiers into Syria in the past few days apparently in cooperation with
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, said a senior Israeli security
official Thursday.

Russia has also recently deployed military assets into Syria
and according to the Israeli source, has teamed up with Iran in an
unprecedented attempt to protect the embattled regime of Bashar Assad
from falling to rebel groups including the Islamic State.
The Israeli source said that Iran's increased military
involvement in Syria was "due to Assad's crisis and under
Russian-Iranian cooperation as a result of a meeting between Soleimani
with Russian President Vladimir Putin," said the Israeli source.

Soleimani (left) and Putin (right) have both put boots on the ground in Syria. (Photo: AP, Fars, EPA)

The only Iranian force that has operated in Syria so far has
been the Basij militia, a paramilitary organization with a relatively
small number of fighters.
The security official said that Israel has little to worry about
Russia's military activity in Syria saying that it is "not directed at
Israel.
"We have dialogue with Russia and we aren't in the middle of the
Cold War," continued the source. "We have open channels with the
Russians."
Israeli security leaders assess that Assad currently controls
just 25-30 percent of Syria, mainly around the country's shoreline where
critical supplies are shipped into ports.
"It's hard to forecast whether Russia's presence will decide the
fate of Syria, but it will lengthen the fighting and bloodletting for
at least another year because ISIS won't give up," said the Israeli
source.
Along Israel's border with Syria in the Golan Heights, Assad
maintains just two enclaves at Quneitra and another smaller area further
north, centered around Syrian-Druze villages that look to the regime
for protection.

Rebels used bad weather caused by a massive sandstorm across the
Middle East in the last few days to gain control of a
government-controlled air field near the northern city of Idlib.